The 1980s Art World: My Generation is History

Catharine Lumby

When French philosopher Jean Baudrillard arrived in Sydney to present a keynote at the Futur*Fall conference in 1984 he must have thought he had stepped into a parallel universe. A short, middle-aged and unassuming man, he was received like a pop star. After delivering a lecture to a standing room only crowd, he was whisked off to the Berlin Club, a hyper-trendy club in the city, where he stood, looking bewildered, as his fans hit the dance floor to Madonna.